Tuesday, April 14, 2020

International Ichnofabric Workshop 16


Announcement, International Ichnofabric Workshop – 16

Convened by Andrew K. Rindsberg, Charles E. Savrda, David C. Kopaska-Merkel,
James P. Lamb

Livingston, Alabama, USA, May 23-29, 2021
Tentative field trip dates: May 18-22 and May 30-June 3
Twitter: @IIW161

Introduction — The International Ichnofabric Workshop began in 1990 as a conference devoted to the study of ichnofabric (sedimentary textures produced by bioturbation), but has since expanded to cover the full range of ichnologic topics. Research on ancient and modern traces, traces made by invertebrates, vertebrates, and plants, and traces of all places are equally welcome here.

This will be the first time since 2007 that the Workshop has been held in North America. Alabama is particularly well suited to host the workshop because of its diversity of trace fossil assemblages, found in rocks of ages from Cambrian through recent, allowing exciting field trips before, during, and after the conference. Tentative plans include seeing, in outcrop or in exhibits,

  • Cambrian Conasauga Formation Brooksella (sponge or trace fossil? You decide!)
  • Ordovician Chickamauga Limestone shallow-marine trace fossils
  • Mississippian Hartselle Sandstone and Parkwood Formation, shallow-marine to estuarine trace fossils including the crustacean resting trace Alph
  • Pennsylvanian Pottsville Formation estuarine vertebrate and invertebrate trace-fossil lagerstatten including the famous Steven C. Minkin Paleozoic Footprint Site (Union Chapel Mine)
  • Cretaceous Selma Group shallow-marine chalks and marls including the famous K-Pg boundary section at Moscow Landing, only a 30-minute drive from Livingston
  • Tertiary marine units in south Alabama

Call for submissions in the subject areas of…
  • general ichnology
  • modern traces (neoichnology)
  • vertebrate traces
  • invertebrate traces
  • ichnofabric
  • evolutionary aspects of ichnology
  • ichnostratigraphy
  • roots and other plant traces
  • ichnotaxonomy
  • pseudotraces and dubiotraces
  • microbially induced sedimentary structures (MISS)
  • ichnoentomology
  • paleobiogeography of trace fossils
  • form and function of trace fossils
  • history of ichnology
  • other
Venue and accommodation

The University of West Alabama

A relatively small university (2500 on-campus students) in a small city (Livingston, 3300 permanent residents)
Large, green campus
Committed to a policy of integration (about half African American)
UWA conference venues include auditorium, classrooms, and presentation area for posters
UWA lodging in student dorms
Dining at the UWA cafeteria, with an excursion to Touch of Home Bakery for lunch

Proposed field trips

Preconference field trip This will be charged separately from the conference fee, and the number of participants will be limited.

Day 1. Coastal Plain outcrops to be arranged

Day 2. Tuscaloosa, including Alabama Museum of Natural History (Pennsylvanian trace fossils) and Geological Survey of Alabama (cores, which might include Rodessa oyster biostromes; Smackover microcoprolites; Cretaceous cycles)

Day 3. Birmingham area, including Red Mountain and Parkwood formations; Pennsylvanian trackways etc. at McWane Science Center

Day 4. Minkin Site (Pennsylvanian Pottsville Formation)

Other field trips are possible: watch the Facebook page and website!

Mid-meeting field trip: This will be a one-day trip for all conference participants; weather and river levels permitting, we will stop at Moscow Landing and Gaineswood. The Local Committee will handle arrangements. The charge for this field trip will be included in the conference fee. We will come up with an alternate stop in case Moscow Landing is submerged.

Post-conference field trip: This will be charged separately from the conference fee, and the number of participants will be limited. Tony Martin and Sally Walker will take participants to coastal Georgia for a neoichnological extravaganza.

Meeting organization

A 5-day conference with 4 days reserved for talks (8 hours per day, 20 minutes per talk for about 100 participants) and one day for a mid-conference field trip. If we allot a room for poster presentations, then talks can be longer.

Organizing committee:
Andrew K. Rindsberg, University of West Alabama
Charles Savrda, Auburn University
David C. Kopaska-Merkel, Geological Survey of Alabama
Gabriela Mángano, University of Saskatchewan
James P. Lamb, Black Belt Museum
George Phillips, Mississippi Museum of Natural Science


Contact and information:

Andrew K. Rindsberg
Biological & Environmental Sciences
University of West Alabama
Livingston, Alabama 35470, USA
Phone +1 (205) 652-3416
Email arindsberg@uwa.edu

or

David C. Kopaska-Merkel
Geological Survey of Alabama
Tuscaloosa AL 35486-6999
Phone +1 (205) 247-3695
Email dkm@gsa.state.al.us

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